SNP loses Westminster big beasts as Alex Salmond and Angus Robertson's seats go to the Tories

SNP depute leader Angus Robertson - Image credit: Danny Lawson/PA Archive/Press Association Images

The SNP has lost two of its key figures at Westminster, with depute leader Angus Robertson and former party leader and first minster Alex Salmond both losing their seats in the North East to the Conservatives.

Tory MSP Douglas Ross took the Moray constituency from Angus Robertson with a majority of 4,200, overturning Robertson’s previous majority of 9,065 with a swing of 14 per cent.

The seat, which only narrowly voted for Remain in last year’s EU referendum, was a key target for the Conservatives.

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Robertson had held the Westminster seat since 2001 and was the SNP’s leader in the House of Commons.

Former first minister Alex Salmond has been an MP and an MSP in various seats in the North East for thirty years, holding the Banff and Buchan constituency at Westminster from 1987 to 2010, returning to Westminster as the MP for Gordon in 2015.

He was beaten by the Conservatives’ Colin Clark, who gained 21,861 votes to Salmond’s 19,254, a swing of 29 per cent.

The Conservatives made opposition to a second independence referendum a key message of their election campaign and his victory speech, Clark said: “The silent majority have spoken – we are proud to be part of the United Kingdom.”

Salmond said that the SNP might find itself in reduced numbers in the House of Commons but would still seek to use its influence to avoid the “calamity of hard Brexit”

He also hinted at a future comeback, quoting a Jacobite song: “You’ve not seen the last of my bonnets and me.”